Apollo

The Apollo 11 mission, which took place on July 20, 1969, is the driving symbol of Alexander’s “Apollo.” As a historical event, the mission marks the first steps of humans on another planetary body. Taking place at the tail end of the 1960s and as a conclusion to the “Space Race” (a race between the two Cold War adversaries, the Soviet Union and the United States, to land on the moon), the spacewalk provides Alexander’s “Apollo” with rich symbolic elements. Most importantly, the Apollo 11 mission marks a moment of unity within America. By serving as an important facet of the Cold War era, the landing on the moon established the United States as a superior power over the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the United States addressed change during the 1950s and 1960s with regard to the Civil Rights Movement. Many important civil rights bills were passed in the 1960s, namely the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Therefore, the Apollo 11 mission allowed the country a brief moment of unification as people of all races watched in unison as the nation landed on the moon.

Alexander’s “Apollo” underscores unity through mimicry. The “we” in the poem watching the men walk on the moon become the men in Stanza 2 (“We did / the same thing” [Lines 5-6]), mimicking them.